Friday 16 May 2014

Lipstick Powder and Paint.

It's been one of those week's, you know the kind where life has kicked the shit out of someone very dear to you and you are left helpless on the sidelines.
I was meant to be meeting my lovely friend Ash in New York in September, we were both super excited. We haven't seen each other for 5 years and had made all sorts of exciting plans.
This week I found out we had to postpone, I'm not going to go into the details, it's not my story, but she's got one hell of a fight ahead of her these next few months and I'm heartsore I can't see her or be with her when she goes through it. Some times life sucks badly.

So I have found myself welling up really easily all week which is not like me, I'm usually a stony hearted mare unless it's to do with a baby elephant or something.

Talking of which Vix get yourself down to the West Midlands Safari Park and blow kisses at the new baby elephant for me please!
Elephant Story


So what else? I bought a lovely pair of lacy tights in my usual size. Now as I have said more than once me and tights do not see eye to eye but this is getting beyond a joke
I mean seriously WT actual F???  (That's a pair of my usual length tights on the left for comparison.)

I swear the tights are trying to break me.

Yesterday I had my barnet cut. Happy, happy day I was actually allowed to have just a few blonde foils in the front.

It has actually taken me by surprise how dull and flat and unlike, well, ME I have felt these last few months not being allowed to colour my hair.
There is still a way to go before I'm at the point of doing whatever I want with it but even those few blonde lights in the front have made me feel like my old self again!

Mind you I say that.

The cut Caron has given me has more than a hint of the Julie Andrews about it. indeed I'm whipping up a set of matching curtain outfits whilst singing about a lonely goatherd even as I type.....

What the heck has all this got to do with the title of my post I hear you cry.

Well I got so fed up with the crap brush on the Bourjours Clubbing mascara I mentioned a couple of posts ago I flung it in the bin in a fit of pique and opened the luscious sparkling red Boots No.7 one.

 
Well I did it again didn't I? I was seduced by the red glitter sparkles and the special offer price and yet again am left bitter and disappointed.

If you have also been tempted don't do it, save your pennies, WALK AWAY. Just walk away. It's pretty rubbish as it goes.

Having said that it does have this one magical quality, sort of a mascara clock of invisibility.
You paint it on and yet it looks like you aren't wearing any mascara at all no matter how hard you try (which is a bit distressing when you have the kind of eyelashes I do)

Somehow within 2 hours you not only have eyelashes that look naked, you also have great black smudges under your eyes!?!

The great mascara hunt plods wearily on.

Next to be tried is Rockstar lashes by Rimmel as created by Kate Moss no less.
I have this gut feeling Kate and I will be having words.


All of this left me thinking about make-up and my pretty much life long love affair with it.

I started wearing make-up when I was 13. It all began when I bought a foot long navy blue eyeliner from Doncaster indoor market for not much money, and wore it often, and applied it with a liberal hand.

Then I got spots, that meant a concealer of some description was needed fast. Back in those days you had the heady choice of 3 shades Fair, Medium, Dark.
It came in a stick and had the consistency dried out paint. It not only was a bugger to put on, it immediaetly flaked whilst also somehow making your zits look more radio active than concealed.
 A bit like drawing a black circle round them with a big arrow next to it saying 'LOOK!!! SPOTS!!!' 

As you can imagine that and the lashings of blue eyeliner were the sight to behold. Not the greatest of starts but I was not deterred. I tried all the different techniques Jackie had to offer and all the different shades (yellow pink and blue anyone?) until I discovered what suited me.

Around the age of 17 a very glamorous friend of my Mum showed me how to apply eyeshadow and blusher properly, from then on there was no looking back. I was a fully fledged, signed up member of the I love make-up club.

This is my make-up drawer as of this morning
Full and in desperate need of a good tidy!

I don't sick to brands other than my foundation (Max Factor) Concealer (Rimmel) and powder (Cornsilk) I am an absolute sucker for special offers, special editions and new brands. Thankfully my skin has never had a bad reaction to all my experimenting. Though I learned hygiene lessons the hard way, more of that in a moment.

On the whole I have found a lot of the cheaper brands work just as well and often last longer than the more expensive. I can say this with authority, believe me, I have tried the lot. From Chanel to MU (where everything in the range is a £1) The one place I would recommend spending the money is on your brushes. Cheap ones are all very well but once you have some really good quality ones you will never look back trust me. If you look after them, they will make you beautiful for many many years and be worth every penny.


My real weakness seems to be eyeshadow pallets. I have many, way, way too many. More than I could ever wear and yet I still buy more.
This is my latest purchase.

I am religious about my make-up hygiene after having painful infected eyes at one point. I clean my brushes regularly with baby shampoo.
Mascara goes after 3 months (if it hasn't already run out or been binned in a fit of temper because it's shit) or the moment it changes smell or consistency.
An opened eyeshadow pallet hits the bin after 2 years and I always sharpen my eyeliners to keep them bacteria free. 

Anyone else a make -up junkie?

8 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear about your friend, I hope all goes in her favour and these coming months won't be too bad for her.

    How cute is that baby elephant, mind you pretty much all baby animals make me go gooey!

    Those tights, wow! I'm a little impressed by the gaping difference! I find tights hard to shop for too, but seem to have struck gold with Superdrug's own.

    I now want to see you and your new cut high up on a mountain twirling.
    I use a BarryM mascara, something about Lash Vegas or Vegas or (hang on I'll check) correct the first time, Lash Vegas and I really like it. I actually sent Andy out to pick me up some and that's what he came home with :)
    I love the image of you in concealer and blue liner! I must confess I went to town on my eyelids using the Posion album "Look What The Cat Dragged In" for inspiration once, Rikki's was my chosen look, it was not a good look on me I don't mind saying xxx

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  2. I am so truly sorry to hear about your friend, I hope she kicks the shit out of it.

    Baby elephants really are adorable aren't they but your tights! *jaw drop* I have problems with sizings a lot, it's a flaming lottery at times. I'm chuffed you are feeling more 'you' with your new hairdo, it looks lovely! I remember those 3 concealer colour choices too, you are so right! it was like tippex on me! and blue and pink eyeshadow too, oh yes! I looked bruised hehe! x x x

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  3. I think any girl growing up in the 1970s-80s has a concealer and blue eyeliner story to tell! I am not an eyeshadow girl at all. I have a few but rarely wear them; they stay on my eyelids for all of about an hour before creasing to buggery and needing to be wiped off... So I am a woman of very simple make-up needs really. I have been using a mascara that is OK, I think - Maybelline Rocket Volume Express. It has a big fat brush (a bit too big for my liking) but it works, isn't too clumpy or flakey, so you might want to give it a go.
    Hurray for a few blonde highlights! I thought your hair looked lovely when we met, but I know what you mean, freshly coloured, brightened hair just helps to lift the spirits a bit.
    That tights photo is hilarious!
    I'm so sorry your friend has a hard time ahead of her, and that your trip has been postponed. Hopefully you will be able to rearrange it and have a great reunion when it happens. Kinda puts make-up and tights and hair into perspective, doesn't it? xxxxxx

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  4. I'm with Curtise, I think your hair looked gorgeous when we saw you the other week but those highlights do look lovely!
    Oh yeah, Rimmel's Blue Sapphire eye liner was pretty much the mainstay of every girl at my school (including me). Don't forget 17's Poncho Pink lipstick and Constance Carroll nail varnishes in such exotic shades as Capri and Rimini.
    I shall have to go and visit that elephant.
    sending lots of positive vibes to your friend. xxxx

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  5. I just got through a couple of those weeks as well, the funk of them only lifting (for the most part) this past Thursday, so you have my complete and total understanding and sympathy, dear gal. I'm sorry that life has been throwing storm after stressful storm your way lately and hope that things soon do a complete 180 for you.

    Gentle hugs,
    ♥ Jessica

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  6. Sending positive thoughts for your friend, sorry to hear that she's having a tough time. On the subject of the tights, I have to say I did a complete double-take at that photo!! That's crazy! And on the topic of make-up I bought a few things in Superdrug the other day - a fab Revlon lippy, Kiss Me Coral, a really rubbish gold eyeshadow stick from MUA that is too dark for my skintone and settles into ridges of gold sand after half an hour and a silver liquid eyeliner that will probably be rubbish too. x

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  7. Sorry about your friend :(
    I try hard to be hygienic with the eye stuff. I wear eyeliner by the bucketful, but have NEVER found a mascara that didn't end up smudged around my eyes, so I don't wear it. I really love Clinique concealer and Stila felt tip eyeliner.

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  8. I'm sorry to hear that things are bad for your friend, and I hope that you'll be able to meet up in New York eventually.

    I'm tremendously boring about my makeup. Every so often I buy a new eyeshadow, then get it home and realise it's the same as all my others, either brown or pale pink! The most revolutionary thing I've done in recent years is switch from Rimmel Kohl eye pencils – which I'd used since my teens - to Maybelline's gel liner, which is brilliant.

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